


Dreams of Hunger

by morna



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, PWP, Smut, Zutara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2013-07-29
Packaged: 2017-12-21 17:18:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/902854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morna/pseuds/morna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She hates him. He knows that, and she knows that he knows that. But she cannot find it in her to care right now and maybe not ever. Still, he can serve a purpose, and she can yet take things from him that he offers freely. </p><p>A Zutara one-shot that takes place season 3 after Zuko joins the Gaang.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreams of Hunger

Dreams of Hunger

Katara sits on the window seat and looks out over the waves of the bay. It is a calm day with the sun shining through in broad golden beams. It is blessedly quiet as well for once. The children have gone out with their father for the day. He is teaching them the lay of Republic City. The waterbender rests her chin on her palm and smiles at the serenity of it all. Everything is beautiful. Everything is calm. Everything is at peace, and she is content.

She thinks back and realizes suddenly that things have been this way for some time now. It has been years since she has gone without food in her belly. It has been years since she has not felt safe in her own home. It has been years since she has worried that Aang or any of her friends would come back to her alive. She frowns. It is odd. She almost misses those things. She misses the rush of life in her veins. She misses feeling her heart pounding in her chest and lungs heaving. She misses the smell of iron in the air and the clash of steel in her ears. She misses knowing her place in the world and the value of herself beyond the Avatar’s wife and the mother of his children. She misses. . . .no best not to think of those things.

The waterbender moves in restless agitation, fidgeting with her skirts before giving up and standing. There must be something to clean around the place. There is always something that needs to be washed or polished. She spots dirty dishes and marches towards them determinedly in order to keep those dangerous thoughts at bay. She fills the basin with water and soap and scrubs the pots and pans until her knuckles are red and raw. Her fingers begin to cramp and her back aches as she puts all of her strength into getting that last nonexistent spot of grease off of the metal, but the memories still come. They slip in through a crack in her normally impregnable mental armor. She does not know where this sudden weakness has come from. Perhaps it is the lack of noise or the wonderful weather or the fact that her husband is away. But her husband is away often and the weather is not unusual and her children play outside frequently.

At last, she grits her teeth and lets her hands go slack in the sudsy water. Hopelessly she stares out of the window again and tries fruitlessly not to remember. But it overwhelms her now like it does in her dreams. She sinks down into and drinks deeply of it until it fills her lungs to bursting.

_She is cold and hungry and frightened and angry. So angry. The anger seems ever present these days. It is a living beast that gnaws at her belly with sharp claws and jagged teeth. Katara sits against the temple wall and lets her head fall back. The jarring of her skull hitting the old stone sets her teeth on edge, and it is enough to make her forget the cold and damp. She could bend the water from herself, but she knows her clothes will only be soaked again soon enough anyways._

_The girl is shivering when she hears a pair of boots hit the stone some way down the hall. She looks up and sees a figure walking towards her through the gloom. Thunder rumbles and makes the ancient ruins shake with its fury._

_Zuko comes to her on quiet feet and no flame held in his hands. He sees only by the light of a dim moon and distant flashes of lightning. The waterbender stands to face him defiantly, bristling with it. She hates him. He knows that, and she knows that he knows that. But she cannot find it in her to care right now and maybe not ever. Still, he can serve a purpose, and she can yet take things from him that he offers freely._

_His golden eyes flicker like a low burning fire in the erratic light of the storm. The firebender moves forward a step, uncertainly like a skittish ostrich horse. They have done this before, but he remains nervous. He should, she thinks in satisfaction even as her hands reach out towards him. He grunts as she pulls his face towards her and forces her lips against his._

_His hot breath flares out against her cheek as he exhales suddenly in surprise. She always catches him off guard. Then his mouth opens for her tongue, and she sucks on his bottom lip.   Her hands slide from his cheeks to his neck to his shoulders. Nails dig into his skin and feel the muscle underneath. It snaps something in him. He seems to remember that he used to despise her just as much as she despises him at the moment._

_Zuko’s hands move from his sides and into her hair. He clenches them in her dark curls and forces her mouth away from his momentarily. They glare at each other in mutual pain and dislike. Her neck begins to ache from his grip on her scalp and having to stare up at him. The prince leans down and kisses her gently, infuriatingly lightly. He’s doing this to torture her, she knows. Katara does not want gentle. She does not come to him for sweet and slow. She comes to Zuko to fuck. That is all. It is not love. It is not even sex. It is wild and violent._

_Her teeth graze his bottom lip as he starts to pull away from her, a warning of her mood. His black brows furrow in anger and he kisses her harder this time, shoving her against the wall. She pushes back out of instinct, but the firebender persists and over powers her. Good, this is what she wanted. His stomach is now pressed against hers and their heartbeats pound against one another. Her world has narrowed down to the heat battering against her and the rough pads of his thumbs as they scrape over her skin. She does not remember how his hands got under her shirt or hers under his._

_He shifts his mouth from hers to her neck and sucks on the skin. She hisses through her teeth and drags her nails down his back. He growls and nips the tender skin of her throat with his teeth. She responds by pinching the skin near his hip. Zuko flinches at the pain and grinds his hips against hers._

_The evidence of his desire presses hard against her lower stomach. Her right hand smoothes over the planes of his chest and lower. She hears his breath catch in his throat as her fingers brush the trail of hair below his navel and keep going past the waist of his pants. Katara smirks into his shoulder and bites his ear lobe as she cups him with the palm of her hand. Zuko groans in appreciation and twitches at her touch. Wrapping her fingers just underneath the head, she begins to move her hand along his shaft. She makes sure that the motion is slow and controlled. The frustration builds in him quickly, and she only manages to get in four strokes before he takes hold of her wrist. His hand grips hers and slams it into the wall, pinning her arm over her head. With his free hand, he attempts to push and pull the bindings on her breasts aside. When that does not work, he curses and burns them off with a carefully controlled flame. She undoes the ties on her shirt herself with quick and eager fingers._

_“You’re buying me new ones,” she states, truly too lost in it all to care._

_“Fine,” he rasps before he lowers his head to her breasts and lets go of her wrist. While he takes her right breast into his mouth, he loosens the stays on her pants and burns away her hip wrappings as well. The burnt material falls away and gathers around her knees in her pants legs. She might have found it annoying were it not for his tongue flicking across her nipple and his fingers splayed on the inside of her thigh._

_He moves from her right to her left breast kissing and sucking every inch of flesh in between them. Without warning, he slides one finger into her, and she draws in a sharp breath. He grins up at her as she writhes against the wall. She realizes that he likes doing this to her. It is his way of having some sort of power and control over her. It is his way of getting the upper hand. She exhales slowly as she tries to regain control of herself. He curls his finger slightly and her knees want to give out._

_The waterbender reaches down and lays her hand against the front of his pants. She begins to massage him through the thin silk and his ministrations lose their rhythm and begin to stagger._

_“Enough of this,” she whispers into his ear as she gives a squeeze and traces one finger along the underside of his shaft._

_He slips a second finger into her in answer and twists his wrist. He swallows before speaking. “Alright, let go of me, and I’ll stop.”_

_She whimpers at the motion but nods hesitantly and lets her hand fall away from him. The prince removes his fingers and shoves her pants down to her knees. Her boots come off next so that her trousers are free to fall to the floor.  She undoes the knot at the front of his pants and lets his erection spring free. They do not bother removing anymore clothing than necessary. In a heartbeat, her shirt is bunched up around her hips as he grabs her ass and lifts her. Katara lets instinct take over as she hooks her ankles behind his hips and locks her arms around his neck._

_Her back slams into the wall as he thrusts into her with his breath against her ear. Her fingers grip the silk of his shirt tightly, her nails scraping the skin of his back. Burying her face against his neck, she bites her lip to suppress a moan building up in her throat. They have to be quiet she knows, but it is difficult. Somehow this need for secrecy and deception only makes it all the better._

_He drives into her again causing her legs to clench and her heels to dig into the small of his back. Being quiet is not a problem for Zuko. He is never loud even now as he is taking her against the wall of an Airbender temple. The only noise he makes is the sound of his body against hers, his breath in her ear, and a moan or a furiously spoken word. There are times when he will curse her, but he never says her name as she never says his._

_The Water Tribe girl presses her lips against his pulse and feels the beat of his heart. She kisses him from the lobe of his ear down to his shoulder while he pushes himself into her again and again. One of his hands is gripping the back of her thigh while the other holds them steady against the wall. Sweat soaks them both from the exertion and the heat pouring off of Zuko. His skin is like fire as her hands and mouth continue to rove over whatever she can get at. A drop of sweat works its way down his spine, and she traces the path of it with the tip of her finger. Her touch makes him shiver and he goes deeper into her._

_Katara cries out louder than she knows she should and a syllable forms on the tip of her tongue. “Zu-“ she begins before she stops herself abruptly. This causes him to slow. He turns his head to look at her, their gazes meeting. She can feel those eyes searching her, scorching over every tender piece of her left. The blood in his body sings to her. It is intoxicating, and she can feel all of that heat and fire inside of him calling out to her._

_He licks his lips nervously, continuing to thrust into her in slow, rhythmic strokes. “What were you about to say?”_

_“Nothing,” she says stubbornly, clenching around him._

_“Don’t lie to me, peasant,” he growls, pressing his forehead to hers so she can’t escape his gaze even if she wanted to._

_And she doesn’t. That’s the scariest part. She doesn’t want to drop her eyes again. She wants to see him staring back at her as he slides into her. But he can’t know this. She can never let him suspect that’s she growing soft, that he is wearing her down. Zuko might be stupid at times, but if he looks deep enough and closely enough he’s bound to see it. She never replies but grabs a fistful of his hair and shoves his mouth against her with bruising intensity. Anything to let her hang onto her anger. Anything to get him to shut up and stop thinking. He seems to let it go as he gets lost in her lips and tongue and teeth. She tightens her hold on his black locks and elicits a grunt of pain from him. Her thighs grip him and urge him on as her heels dig into his spine and push him further into her._

_From there, she does not bother to wonder anymore about what is going on inside that head of his. She lets herself go and gives free rein to her mouth and hands. Zuko loses any sense of control he had and pumps into her faster and harder. Then she feels that building of pressure that makes her toes curl and her skin prickle in anticipation. Katara is close to tumbling head over heels off of that cliff. Her fingernails score his back and shoulder, but he doesn’t complain. She might have drawn blood. She is not sure at this point, and she does not care. There. Right there. The prince hits that one perfect spot, and she goes spinning. Katara becomes hyperaware of every bit of liquid in the room as pleasure bursts in her. Her blood pounds in her ears in time with Zuko’s. She can taste the sweat on his brow and his back. The rain is a constant rhythm drumming against her skull as her brain buzzes._

_She murmurs things to him, pleading and begging and not fully aware of what words are tumbling out of her mouth. Zuko gives a sailor’s curse and succumbs to pleasure. This time though he is not as wordless as he normally is. His voice is so soft as he whispers to her that she can barely hear him with his fingers digging into her thigh for dear life. She is not certain, but she thinks she catches her name on his breath._

_When he is spent, he trembles against her with her legs still locked around his hips. There is an odd air of reluctance to untangle themselves from each other now that there has never been before. Katara feels as if she should say something to break this tension, anything, but no words come to mind. Somehow all of them would be wrong. He breathes a ragged breath, kisses the side of her neck twice, and lowers her to the ground. The stone is rough against her feet, and the world is colder without his fevered skin pressed to her._

_They get dressed in silence and darkness as quickly as they can. She knows that they have been gone too long, but she also knows that is not what drives their urgency. They came too close tonight, only escaping by the skin of their teeth. A line had nearly been crossed, a silent agreement nearly shattered. It is a mutual arrangement. That is all._

_As they finish lacing up their pants and rewrapping their shirts, they stare at each other. What now? They seem to ask each other. Normally, these meetings end with spiteful quips and smug grins, but those would be hollow gestures._

_In the end, they decide it is best to say nothing and turn their backs on each other, heading separate ways down the hall._

Katara blinks as she drifts out of the memory and stares down at the cool, soapy water. The dark skin of her hands is pruned from allowing them to sit in the liquid so long. She shakes her head to free her mind of the last dregs of the recollection. It is time to let that go. It has long since passed, and nothing came of it.

Their meetings after that time had continued until a few months after the war ended, but they were never the same. They were strained with unspoken things that hung over their heads like thunder clouds threatening rain. Sometimes Katara finds herself wishing that she had allowed that storm to break. She finds that she misses the crackle of lightning and the clapping of thunder he had brought into her life. She misses the blistering heat and the crippling cold that seemed to accompany him. She misses that wanting, that yearning, that hunger that had dogged her when he was around.

Life is easy with Aang, she knows that. It is tranquil and simple as things should be, but she is not sure that is how she wants things to be.


End file.
